All 4 Congressional Leaders Very Unpopular

Several polls have shown that Congress as a whole is very unpopular these days. In the last few months, their approval ratings have been below 15% (and the disapproval ratings very high). The folks at Gallup decided to find out if that congressional unpopularity also applied to the leaders of both parties there, and not surprisingly, it does.

The recent Gallup Poll was taken between September 5th and 8th of a nationwide sample of about 794 adults, with a 4 point margin of error. The poll showed that all four congressional leaders, Mitch McConnell & Harry Reid in the Senate and John Boehner & Nancy Pelosi in the House, are not well liked by the general public and all four have upside-down approval ratings -- McConnell (35%-47%), Reid (33%-53%), Boehner (37%-54%), and Pelosi (39%-51%).

The poll also showed that all four were pretty equally disliked by Independent voters. But three of those leaders can at least claim some support from their own political party -- with the numbers for Boehner at 48%-44% among Republicans, while Reid has a rating of 47%-40% & and Pelosi has a rating of 65%-24% among Democrats. It is Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader who has the worst numbers, being upside-down even with the members of his own party at 33%-47%.

This could well show why his poll numbers for his re-election campaign in Kentucky have been so low (showing him trailing his Democratic opponent by a few points). Politics is a lot harder when the voters in your own political party don't like you (by a huge 14 point margin).